149th Street Harlem Station

[Painkiller]

Now Gentlemen, this will be a very, very interesting thread that I will follow very closely. I have ben eye balling these terminals as modeling prototypes very closely for some time. Maybe one day it will be end up with LV.s Bronx Terminal with some modeling license...

[sailormatlac]

[quote="Painkiller"]Now Gentlemen, this will be a very, very interesting thread that I will follow very closely. I have ben eye balling these terminals as modeling prototypes very closely for some time. Maybe one day it will be end up with LV.s Bronx Terminal with some modeling license... [/quote

Thanks! The good thing about Harlem Station is that you don't need one once of modeling license. Everything fits with no pain.

Today I started to lay track at 7AM and ended at 7PM, including about 1 hour break for lunch & diner. I'm starting to think Reinhard is a superhuman! How does he have such a constant and intense modeling output mesmerize me!

Track was glued with latex caulk. It went surprising fast. I'm glad to have bought a long aluminium straight edge. So far, it's been my best purchase of the year. Can't believe I lived without one for such a long time.





In some spot, mainly near the carfloat apron, I used 5-minutes epoxy because radius is very very tight. Small brass pins were inserted into the concrete wall to make sure rails would stay aligned.





I'm quite proud of the final result. It took me about 5 years to "complete" this project since my first attempt was kindly published by the late Carl Arendt, but I'm glad I started over. The actual layout is probably among the most accurate rendition of this small terminal and it's fun to see it taking shape. I did some operation and was happy to find out my trusty Atlas S2 was able to navigate the very tight radius, some less than 12 inches.







I took some minutes to test and operate the layout. I can already say it will be a very fun small layout to operate. Next step is to spray paint the track before moving to scenery.







Next steps are spray painting the tracks in camouflouge brown (Krylon) and starting to build the concrete pads, roads and ramp.

Rarely my projects move forward so quickly and flawlessly. It's crazy to think what is left is scenery and structures!!!

Matt

[Canadian Atlantic Railway]

I can already hear the wheel flanges squealing with those tight curves

[sailormatlac]

I can already hear the wheel flanges squealing with those tight curves

It almost does in a few spots!

I read that the nearby Harlem transfer terminal had surelevated curves about 2 inches high to ease moving cars!

Matt

[faraway]

Great progress!!

[shortliner]

Matt - I can tell you that you will get a lot of fun out of switching that layout, just as I did with my adapted version - you are making a very nice job of it indeed - really well done

[Twist]

hi there,
wow,that´s looking great and you made a lot of progress in this short time. Keep the things going. Nice Work.

Cheers,Chris

[NSHO]

That's going to be a LOT of fun to play with...err..I mean, operate. Great job!

[sailormatlac]

Thanks guy!

I completed the carfloat apron styrene structure yesterday. I only need a few details part, painting and adding wood decking. This morning, I painted the rail. It really did improve the general look. Looks less toyish.

Today's challenge is starting to build the several concrete pad and retaining walls. I'll need to get some supplies first. I'll use the technic I experimented with on my Quebec South Shore Railway layout. Carboard is easy to cut to lenght, paint and glue. Let's keep things straight forward!

@Jack: Seriously, I was suprised how much track I used up when laying it yesterday. That small terminal track density is quite high! I've been recently reading on how they handled cars on carfloat - that alone is truly a very interesting set of procedures to reproduce.

Matt

[shortliner]

Oh, Yes! running around 4 sides of a square (effectively!) and adding in the semi diagonal siding tracks gives you a lot longer set of trackage than you expect, and takes a lot of sorting traffic too. I had an S4 ( S2?) which had the correct number for the one that ran on the 149th yard - Prof Klyzlr found me a link to it, but that went on to another guy in UK who was thinking of building the same thing He was part of the team that built the model of Menasha, Wi - I believe he may now be working in O gauge, so it might just possibly be available - I have asked for a link to this thread to be passed on to him, so he may show up!

[modelsof1900]

Matt,
sorry that I copied and inserted your plan here again.



It is every time surprisingly to me, that you can built on such relative small room a complete railroad with such harbor railways! Maybe that they must be reduced a bit in space or that some track lengths must be shortened but it's a complete railway without missing one part of reality! It's a very nice theme and I love such layouts with possibilities for switching without an end. And with barges or ferries you can change the cars on the layout after your interests and with all models from your inventory.
I'm enjoyed to see your progress and I'm looking forward to see next steps and more pictures.

[sailormatlac]

Matt,
sorry that I copied and inserted your plan here again.

It is every time surprisingly to me, that you can built on such relative small room a complete railroad with such harbor railways! Maybe that they must be reduced a bit in space or that some track lengths must be shortened but it's a complete railway without missing one part of reality! It's a very nice theme and I love such layouts with possibilities for switching without an end. And with barges or ferries you can change the cars on the layout after your interests and with all models from your inventory.
I'm enjoyed to see your progress and I'm looking forward to see next steps and more pictures.

Thanks Bernard, the versatily of such layout is what brought me to model it. I have many american cars that aren't of any use on my regular canadian layout. No compression, what you see on the track plan is fully 100% accurate. No tweaking, no compression, no alteration. Turnouts are exactly were they are supposed to be and radius are spot on the prototype. I went "rivet-counting" mode when designing the track plan. I leearn about Harlem Station about 5 or 6 year ago when Jack aka Shortliner did a compressed rendition published on Carl Arendt's Micro-layout website. Harlem River had over 4 of these small pocket terminals, all very different. In a small space, you get the best of two worlds.

Matt

[Ralph]

Wow! You're making great progress! I really like the carfloat scene!

[sailormatlac]

Thanks Ralph. That my favorite spot too!

Yesterday, I painted the track with Krylon excellent camouflage brown. This is really a nice basic color to paint both rails and ties. Some washes and subtle colors will be added later to weather the track closer to prototype.



I also completed the carfloat apron with some details scavenged from Walthers' apron and with bits of styrene. I'd say the apron is about 90% complete. Need to get some parts and prepare wood for the deck planking.





Today, I cut and installed the concrete pads. These were made with 2mm cardboard. Quite thick, but cutting was far easier than I expected. It took me all day to prepare them. Next steps is to add the concrete curbs per prototype and paint them. It's going to be tiresome... but once done, the most annoying model railroading activities will be behind me as I'll venture in real scenery works, which I rarely do.









A cut-to-lenght piece of MDF plinth was used to make the concrete abutment supporting the bridge hinges. Fun how the most unlikely materials end up having a second life.



Matt

[sailormatlac]

Just ranting... For years, I used Krylon Satin Rock River grey as base coat for concrete structure. That gray has a nice earth-tone that looks already weathered. I've tried tracking down that color in many local stores but only the gloss version is available (even if the website official chart says otherwise). Since I started painting the concrete pads with the Satin version and ran out of paint, I'm stuck using the gloss coat then applying a matte coat. What a waste of time, material and money. Seriously, I'm getting really tired of wasting my time with worthless stores in my area. It started with the demise of decent hobby stores then the larger stored aren't able to carry a entire line of paint. They never have anything useful on the shelves. Worst, they carry about 90%-to-95% of the Krylon line but dismissed one of the most useful neutral color. hock: Almond is quite near... but I tried and it just doesn't look right.

Another good reason to be creative you'll say. If I didn't have to paint over 12 square feet of concrete gray, I'd airbrushes with a custom mix.

Matt